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Author
Topic: Any women out there who have had a baby or are pregnant? (Read 48134 times)

Hi Panda, that is not true about the shingles. For most people if you get them once you usually dont get them again. But for people that are HIV+, you are more likely to get them a second, or god forbid, third time. Because of the immune system. To answer your question about how I got pregnant, to be honest haha we had a couple problems...one time the condom came off and another time it broke. I want to get pregnant again sometime maybe in like a year. I was wondering how we are gonna do it. I'm guessing we will just try the home-made way and hopefully it happens! The funny thing is that with my ex I tried so hard to get pregnant and couldnt. Once I finally got pregnant I had a miscarriage. So then when I got with my current guy and we had a couple condom issues and I found out I was pregnant. Our bodies work in weird ways...

I found out my status during my prenatal treatment with my 13 year old. My oldest is 16 and I was neg when I had her and my twins are 9 and we had them using the home-made method. My lil' angel that I'm carrying now was not exactly planned. We were talking about the possiblity of it and then I had an issue with antibiotics for a yeast infection, birth control and a condom mishap, LOL But I believe whats meant to be will be.

Anyway, onto your other questions, I've been undetectable for along time and I started back on my meds the beginning of my second trimester and my numbers are still good. I'm undectable and 653 as far as my last test (they run my numbers about every 6 weeks). They have been watching my kidneys because those numbers have been a little off this pregnancy but I've never had a problem in the past. My biggest worry is keeping my numbers good enough so that I don't need a C-section (I have a big fear of being cut open).

Any other questions you have feel free to ask. I always wished I had someone to talk to throughout my time being pos so I'm more than happy to share anything I know from my experiences that might help someone else

Hi Healthy, about the shingles , well I was definitely told at the hospital u get it once, they knew there I AM HIV and still that's what they told me , since I 've been through the shingles I think in the most horrible way I can not imagine myself going through it all over again, so I realy hope what they told me there is correct, u didnt get it twice right? Only while you were pregnant?

Blessed - planned or not planned this baby is a gift. I hope to get such a beautiful givt to my 33 birthday coming soon on november.

Its sunday morning and I have to get arrange to the offcie after missing for a week due to illness.

Thanks for your lovely email, I am not at a 1000 though, that was someone else (our mutual acquintance), I am around 300 T cells, this week I will find out if I am still detectebale or not and the doc said if I am there is need for concern.. I will update you more.

Enjoy getting back to work... yes Sunday is the first day of the work week in some countries . I also wish you the best birthday present.

Thanks to all the ladies for sharing all your stories here, I will be sure to bug you with questions when the time comes... I want to be "blessed" too.

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"If you keep one foot in yesterday, and one in tomorrow, you piss all over today". Betty Tacy

Dragonet my dear - I snet you few emails during the weekend , I guess you were bussy,.,

All , I decided I will but this home test to find my ovulation and try do it this month at home, the problem is these tests are very expensive and contains only 5 maybe 6 sticks and if I want to cover the whole optinal days I have to check as frm day 12 to the day I get my period so u can imagine already....The dr. once explained me that there is some protein in the sperm that get into this woman circulation and help body get the ovulation to a stady time, but with me its complicated cause I was infected when I was very young at age 18.5 so since then.. well,,,you know.... condom was ny best body, didnt had a real chance to meat the good old sperm... But my period always comes on time , so does it makes any sense ?

Hi panda. I dont know why the people at the hospital would tell you that about the shingles. Most healthy people can only get them once. People with compromissed immune systems like us, can get them multiple times. I have only had them the one time while pregnant, one of my good friends who is HIV + has had them 3 times. You can def get them more than once. But you may never get them ever again either. Its just one of those things that differ from person to person. Having HIV increases the risk of getting them more than once.

Wow - now I 'm scared .I will talk about it with my dr. , if I didn't know what it is I guess it wouldn't have bothered me but since I've been through this horrible experience I can not imagine myself going it through again specialy while pregnanacy...

Well anyway, now I must put all my effort on trying to get pregnant, seems to me now like mission impossible.

This topic is so close to my heart. I am in South Africa and I am battling to get a doctor who can help my husband and I. My husband is negative and I'm positive. Earlier this year after 3 failed attempts at artificial insemination, I found out both my fallopian tubes are blocked and therefore our only option at the moment is IVF, which unfortunately not a lot of doctors do here in SA. I went to three fertility specialists and they all told me straight up that they will NOT help an hiv positive woman fall pregnant, but if it was the opposite and hubby was positive, they'd gladly help me. We've raised enough money for the IVF, which by the way costs between R20 000 and R40 000 per cycle - depending on the medication and injections you use. The doctor who did the artificial insemination unfortunately is not qualified to do IVF so we can't go back to him.

My heart is SO sore. My hubby and I's deepest desire is to have a baby. I have been positive for 11 years and yet I am still very healthy and have very good counts. My GP wrote referal letters for me to take to the specialists and yet they refused. The one doc went on to lecture me about how I can even think of having a baby when I am positive.....do I realise how selfish I am.....do I realise I don't have long to live and that when I die who will look after the baby? I couldn't even answer him - I just sat there and cried, and cried.

I am going to see another specialist I have been refered to who apprently does help HIV positive women. I'll be going on the 23rd October. Please pray for me. Hubby and I really want to have a baby.

My dear , I am keeping my fingures crossed for you. I can not beleive there is actualy a dr. that told you this horrible things? U have full right to be a mother, how can he tell you this? According to what he say , no one who has any cronic disease ... its bulshit!! My dr. in Israel was so happy and encourage me when I told him I want to get pregnant, the problem in Israel is that IVF is not yet to be approved for hiv, its being now discussed in court... so we are now going through some other fertility treatment , one succeed but unfortunately ended up with miss carriage,,, so now we are going on second round.

Just wanted to say I get so emotional each time I see you little baby on the side of the screen...I don;t know how its in your place, but where I coming from we are afreid of ... well not sure how to translate it, but like bad energy.. like , only after the baby is out safety you can breathe again... you have about 4 month to go right?? Ho... so excited....I realy hope this month is will be MY month.By the way, finaly I managed to put my dancing image... this is me, I am not leaving untill I find the way... so don't go confused now as I will switch my beautifull animation collection all the time...

Panda, thank you and yes I have a little less than 4 months left. I do get worried but everytime I can look down at my growing belly and see him/her kicking or stretching I can breath easy, smile and continue to count my blessings.

Well since there seems to be many experianced mothers here I have a few questions. This is my fourth pregnancy, my first since testing poz. This is a question for the mothers who have had children while neg, then after testing poz.

Do you think that the pregnancy posed a greater burden on your body after testing poz? My first three pregnancys were pretty normal, I had some morning sickness fatigue but nothing too bad. This pregnancy hasn't been horrible either but I feel as if it is taking a greater toll on my body. I'm more exausted then I had ever been with my other children. I've gained sufficient weight but I've gained far less during this pregnancy then I did with my others and the nausea and stomach issues are far worse also. I'm not sure weather to attribute this to my Poz status and the meds or if it's just that every pregnancy is different and this one is no exception. Any input would be helpful.

Since I had only one child before I tested positive and am now on my 5th I can't say for sure if it was worse or not. I do know that this pregnancy has been really draining but I've just chalked that up to me finally having a boy, LOL Aside from that pretty much all my pregnancy were different in there own way but I just assumed that with age your body handles things differently too and never associated anything with my status since my doctors never did either.

hope_full

I cant believe how relieved I am to find this forum and this thread in generall I am currently 5 months pregnant and positive no one but my husband knows my status he is positive too we were only diagnosed last christmas and are not ready to disclose. I know it is wise to seek support but my family and friends are not who I wish to seek it from therefor I keep quiet.

I talk to a few women on the positivly womens helpline and after christmas I will be going to meet up with some of them in london ( i live inthe uk ) I am starting medication to prevent transmission in a few more weeks I am confident I can take the meds properly and have prepared myself for it unfortunatly this has fallen at christmas where there will be many friends and family in and out of my house some of which are staying with me madness I know but I will keep my meds in my bedroom (knicker drawer probably lol ) my husband manages quite well to take his meds without anyone noticing ! I have to keep telling myself it will ok as I cannot contemplate people finding out right now there is alot of ignorance and i dont want them to know .... does that make me mad ?? all I hear is how people should share the burden with someone but I dont want to rush it.

anyone have any experience of taking medication and hiding it ?

sorry I am waffeling I am just so relieved to read all your stories you ladies are a true inspiration

I tested positive while pregnant with my 2nd child in 1992. They did not offer any drug treatment or c-section to me. He was born positive and remained positive. He passed away in 1997. I know things are alot different now with treatment options and the percentage of children who are born negative or eventually test negative is much better. Having a positive child is difficult. I wish you all the best of luck.

Hope_full~~ I too have not disclosed to anyone. The only people who know my status are my doctors. It is hard when you have people in and out of the house as I too have had to hide meds at times. I fear somebody stumbling upon them and finding out my status before Iím ready to disclose. This is especially true for me since I work in healthcare and many of my friends are healthcare professionals. What I do is I keep my med bottles in a private place (usually my bedroom). If I need to go somewhere I carry a small case made especially for carrying pills. I always keep an extra supply of meds in a case in my purse because Iím always on the go and if I end up being somewhere other then home and itís time to take my medication, its there and handy. This is easier then carrying the bottles around and you donít have to risk anyone seeing the labels. I wish you the best with your pregnancy. Good luck!!

Wini~~ Your story is heartbreaking!! It amazes me how just such a short time ago women who were poz were more likely to have poz babies. What you have gone through is my worst fear. Have you had any children since the one who passed?

I see that I only have about a month and a half or so on you (currently 27 weeks) LOL Even though I have been positive my whole adult life (since age 19) it was very hard disclosing to friends and family. I still have many people in my life who do not know. Just like Nygurl said I too keep my meds in different cases all the time that way there are no labels to deal with. Whenever I'm out and about or we have company I'll just go in another room if its meds time and lock the door.

I've had two kids while being positive, I found out when I was pregnant with my first child. My son is now 9 and my daughter is 6. I was on AZT with both of them, my son got it in liquid form for the first 6 weeks of his life but my daughter didn't. She got one dose at birth (wasn't AZT not sure of the name). They are both negative. And I have hidden and taken meds as well as given it to my son, I never disclosed until recently.

Hope everyone is well will chat soon again but this is another something I am hiding .... for now so can't talk for now.

Love and hugsG

ps. congrats to all expecting mothers!!

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When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. - African proverb

Oh yeh, and i had a c-section and an iv of AZT, i was already undetected but i still got that. Also my daughter hd to take oral medication..i forgot the name retrovir??..i think for 6 weeks and be tested until she was 18 months..tht was hard for me..bu ti am just glad she is negative!

I'm also pregnant - 6 weeks . Our first IVF worked! I am still struggling with the medication combinations though. I am on Ziagen and Combivir and its been really difficult to decide what to do as my gynaecologist says stop the medication until I'm at least 12 weeks pregnant and then re introduce but my physician is not for that route - he wants me to continue as there is a chance of drug resistance, etc.

During all my pregnancies since I've been poz I have not taken meds the first trimester and that was because of the issue with that being the primary time of the babys development. I've never had any issue with resistance either. The one time that I attempted to take meds thru my first trimester I lost that baby but I don't know if was because of the meds or not. Everyone is different of course but I just wanted to give you my experience.

I am pregnant, but it was a shock and still kind of overwhelming, since I am not usually that stupid to put myself at risk. I was seeing an HIV positive man--I did the responsible thing and made sure to have both of us get tested for other STDs. I was on birth control and we didn't always use condoms since we were monogamous. I realize that if I had not thrown out the info sheet you get with prescriptions without reading it, I would have realized that the protease inhibitors I am on decrease the effectiveness and that we should have done the condoms as well. I am usually meticulus and Miss Responsible, but i guess there is no point in beating myself up now. I am slowly getting used to the idea that sometime in June I will have a baby (June 10 is the official due date, but I guess I could still have it any time that month). Even though I broke up with the dad, I am glad that he will at least help out. I am definitely glad that if I had to get pregnant, it is now, when I have access to treatments that will make it extremely unlikely that the baby will get it.

tendai

Tamika asikana, congrats shaa. I'm really happy for u girl.Coffee and catwoman congrats to you too. i wish you all healthy pregnancies..These forums are going to be responsible for a lot of babies it seems

I am so excited to find this forum! I have been + since 94.I had my first son in 98, he is now 9, and healthy!I had 2 boys and a girl in 03( Question: If I say the twins +1 word, and someone does a search will my post show up?) anyway I had 3 at a time and they are all negative too.Congrats to all the mothers! I look forward to talking to everyone!

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Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important

The heaviest thing you can carry is a grudge..

One thing you can give and still keep...is your word.

One thing you can't recycle is wasted time.

tendai

Hie Snowangel, welcome to the forums!Girl you had THREE babies at once and all negative. Talk about amazing. Tell us more was it a natural vaginal birth or u had caesarian section. what special precautions and stuff did they have to do?U get pregnant the normal way?and to answer your question yes i think your post would show up if you used the twins + 1 word and someone searched the forums.Hope to hear more from u!

Thanks, Tendai!Let's see, I got pregnant the old fashioned way . I had just started the pill a month or so before and thought I was in the clear. I found out at 17 weeks there was 3. I had actually scheduled an abortion because I thought something was seriously wrong with the baby. They give you an ultrasound before and the lady asked me if I wanted to know anything about the pregnancy. Which I thought was strange. So I said Yes. She then asked me if I had twins in my family. I said No, is it twins. She said No......and then left me hanging. When I asked her how many she saw she said 3. After the shock, I asked her if that was why I was feeling so sick and she said yes, you have 3 times the hormones going through you. Do you want to continue with the abortion. No way, and I left. They put me on complete bedrest at 25 weeks and I had the babies at 29.5 weeks thru c-section after my water broke early. They each were just a tad of over 2 lbs so they were in the hospital for 6 weeks. When I had my older son I was involved in a women and transmission study and so the kids got were able to get monitored through that again. They all had the oral medication as well. I hope I remembered everything you asked, hopefully I will figure this out shortly

Coffee- Congrats on your pregnancy! When my babies father found out there was 3 he took off until they were a couple of months old. I know you said your babies daddy is going to be involved but if you every need any extra support.....my mantra when I was on bedrest was (and I am not religious at all) God doesn't give you anything you can't handle...I just wish he didn't trust me so much ...but anyway I am here for you, as I am sure everyone else here will be.

Wow, Snowangel--you had THREE at one time!!!!! Wow, that is amazing. I don't think I could do it. It puts my own situation in perspective. I am luckily having only one. I just actually updated my signature, but I had my ultrasound on Friday and I am having a boy. He was a little coy at first, but finally spread his legs and showed us all his glory (or as the tech called it his "turtle", because evidently it looks like a turtle on the ultrasound).

Hello. I am new to the forum.I was tested poz in aug06. I am just about comign to terms with it now.I am 5 months pregnant and am expecting a son.I have a 16yr old daughter who is my world.The babys father is gettign tested. We broke up at xmas but remain freinds for our sons sake.

I am on Combivir and Kalerta. My cd4 is 662.I am told that my son will have combivir for 4 weeks when he is born and i am hoping for a normal birth. I did not think it was possible to be pregnant whilst poz but with all the right care and advice it is.

Congratulations, Coffee ! That is so exciting to find out your are having a boy! Have you figured out any names yet? That is one of the hardest things I think. I have 3 boys all together so our house is total chaos

Welcome and Congratulations to you too, Longpink! I am new to this forum too.

Hope you are both feeling well! Having a strange cravings? With my first son it was spicy food, popiscles and shrimp cocktail. The trip lets...I think I ate a roast beef sandwich everyday.